McCarthy

It wasn’t “pad level” today, apparently. And I’m not sure Mike McCarthy said anything about “leverage.” But we are back to “communication,” which was what McCarthy used to cite frequently in his first season when the defense struggled. There were a couple of places where the communications was clearly bad. But it feels like McCarthy’s way of no answering questions he’d like to ignore. So you have exchanges like these — the first about the confusion on a 3rd and 5 near the end zone shortly before the half and the second about a shouting match between Al Harris and Brady Poppinga.

(What happened on the 3rd-and-goal at the 5 in the first half…screen pass where Finley and Rodgers got into it a little?)

That’s what I’m referring to is the communication as far as the huddle call was following a time out, there’s no need for that. We should be set and ready to go there. The quarterback had, it’s a two-way play that we refer to as far as his options, what’s going to occur on that play. And frankly the formation, not being lined up initially factored into the play so…And that’s why we’re kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns on that particular play.

(Did Jermichael lined up on the wrong side?)

I don’t want to get into that. It’s all of our faults. We should not have problems lining up after a timeout. That’s what happened.

(Players were yelling at each other during the game, is the frustration of the season starting to set in?)

That’s communication, that’s what I’m talking about. There’s play calls that come in from the sideline that need to be communicated and it goes from the communicator all the way out and it wasn’t as clean as it needed to be today.

(What happened with Harris and Poppinga?)

I just answered the question, same thing, three times. It’s a breakdown in communication. Certain coverages are called against the front and it needs to be communicated and that goes all the way out.

Maybe it’s not a good idea to call out someone like Jermichael Finley in public. He’s a rookie, after all. But “it’s all of our faults?” If it’s everyone’s fault, it’s no one’s fault. And that’s plainly not true. I think it might be nice to see McCarthy calling some people out.